Twilight of a Neighborhood - North Carolina Humanities Council

SUmmer • Fall 2010 

CROSSROADS 

A PublicAtion of the north cArolinA humAnities council 

Twilight of a Neighborhood 

Sarah M. Judson, Department of History, University of North Carolina at Asheville 

Driving DOwn South French Broad Avenue 

in Asheville, travelers see a sign that reads “Know 

our Past, grow our Future.” This message is strikingly 

relevant to many Asheville neighborhoods, but 

perhaps particularly to the predominantly African 

American “East End.” 

“Twilight of a neighborhood: Asheville’s East End, 

1970,” was a multi-faceted public humanities project 

funded in part by the north Carolina Humanities 

Council. it was organized around Andrea Clark’s 

powerful photographs which explore the community’s 

life before and after the impact of urban renewal 

there. The discussions and interviews of the “Twilight 

of a neighborhood” project revealed a wide array of 

viewpoints that often contradicted each other and 

signaled that the history of urban renewal is complex 

and shaded. Among the factors that influenced 

responses were race, age, gender, and class. The 

project helped energize an emerging movement of 

concerned Asheville citizens who believe that their 

culture and history will shape how they live in the 

present and define the future. 

Asheville was one of many cities across the United 

States that participated in urban renewal, part of a 

national effort during the 1950s through the 1970s 

to improve so-called blighted areas of cities. in 

theory, urban renewal would enhance the landscape 

of cities and provide displaced residents model 

housing. in practice, however, many rich and vibrant 

communities of color were flattened throughout the 

United States. replacing these neighborhoods were 

wide roadways, highways, and new multi-story buildings. 

residents, some of whom were homeowners, 

were either relegated to substandard public housing 

or forced to relocate elsewhere. 

Some scholars suggest that as many as 1,600 

African American neighborhoods were destroyed by 

urban renewal during three decades of public policy. 

Most African American neighborhoods in Asheville, 

many of which were over one hundred years old, 

were affected. 

One of the most significant outcomes of the programming 

was how relevant the East End experience 

was for residents of other neighborhoods. Urban 

renewal in Asheville took place over a broad cross 

section of the city and in a relatively short period of 

time. As a result, urban renewal was a continuous 

experience for Asheville’s African American community 

for almost thirty years. Beginning with the 

Hill Street neighborhood in 1957 as the Cross-Town 

Expressway was built and moving on to Southside, 

Looking down Eagle Street. Photo by Andrea Clark. Courtesy 

Andrea Clark Collection, Pack Memorial Public Library. 

www.nchumanities.org

Stumptown, Burton Street, and East End, the fabric 

of each of these historic African American communities 

was torn apart. 

Dr. Mindy Fullilove, professor of clinical psychiatry 

and public health at Columbia University, defines this 

process as “root shock” in her groundbreaking Root 

Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts 

America and What We Can Do About It. root shock, 

according to Fullilove, is “the traumatic stress reaction 

to the loss of some or all of one’s emotional ecosystem.” 

This devastation of social networks, Fulliove 

explains, “is a profound…upheaval that destroys the 

working model of the world that had existed in the 

individual’s head”; it results in a rupturing of individual 

and communal identity. 

As people looked at Clark’s photographs and 

attended programs, they voiced their experiences 

as a profound sense of loss; they had a keen 

Vol. 14, Issue 1, 

s ummer/Fall 2010 

Guest Editor: Karen Loughmiller 

Managing Editor and Publisher: 

Harlan Joel Gradin, Associate 

Director of Programs/Director of 

Community Development, North 

Carolina Humanities Council 

North Carolina Humanities 

Council Staff: 

Shelley J. Crisp 

Lynn Wright-Kernodle 

Genevieve Cole 

Darrell Stover 

Jennifer McCollum 

Donovan McKnight 

Carolyn Allen 

Anne Tubaugh 

Tim Wolfe 

Design: 

Kilpatrick Design 

www.kilpatrickdesign.com 

Founding Publication 

Team of Crossroads: 

Katherine Kubel 

Pat Arnow 

Mary Lee Kerr 

Lisa Yarger 

Harlan Joel Gradin 

IssN 1094-2351 ©2010 

addItIoNal resources 

Brunk, Robert S., ed., May We All Remember 

Well: A Journal of the History & Culture of 

Western NC. Vol. 2. Asheville: Robert S. 

Brunk Auction Services, Inc., 1983. 

Fullilove, Mindy Thompson. Root Shock: How 

Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts 

America and What We Can Do About It. 

New York: One World/Ballantyne, 2005. 

Hanchett, Thomas W. Sorting Out the New South 

City: Race, Class, and Urban Development 

in Charlotte, 1875–1975. Chapel Hill: 

University of North Carolina Press, 1998. 

Mosley-Edington, Helen. Angels Unaware: 

Asheville’s Women of Color. Asheville: 

Home Press, 1996. 

—.Visionaries: Asheville’s Women of Color. 

Asheville: Home Press, 2000. 

Neufeld, Rob, and Henry Neufeld. Asheville’s 

River Arts District (Images of America: North 

Carolina). Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 

2008. 

oNlINe collectIoNs aNd exhIbIts 

The Andrea Clark Photographic Collection. North 

Carolina Collection, Pack Library, Buncombe 

County Public Libraries, Asheville, NC. www. 

buncombecounty.org/governing/depts/library/ 

Gallery/andreaClark/default.htm. 

Asheville Housing Authority Records and 

Heritage of Black Highlanders Collection. 

D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, 

University of North Carolina at Asheville. 

http://toto.lib.unca.edu/findingaids/mss/blackhigh/default_blackhigh.html. 

An Unmarked Trail: Stories of African Americans 

in Buncombe County from 1850–1950. 

understanding of what the cost of urban progress 

meant for them. 

Southside resident robert Hardy poetically describes 

his own experience: “But the Land!…The community 

breakdown: family displacement and the loss of businesses, 

neighbors, continuity, sanguinity, customs, 

cultures, and social norms.” One tangible symbol of 

this process was the change of the name of valley 

Street to South Charlotte Street after a relative of one 

of Asheville’s largest slave owners, Charlotte Patton. 

“Twilight of a neighborhood” alerted all of Asheville 

to the personal stories of how people experienced 

the past. Andrea Clark’s photographs capture the 

full spectrum of community life in Asheville’s East 

End in 1970. The images portray a neighborhood 

with bustling business and street life, gardens where 

people grew their own food, and sidewalks on which 

children played under the watchful eyes of elders. 

Digital Exhibit. Center for Diversity 

Education, University of North Carolina 

at Asheville, 2008. www.diversityed.org/ 

unmarked-trail. 

With All Deliberate Speed: School Desegregation 

in Buncombe County. Digital Exhibit. Center 

for Diversity Education, University of North 

Carolina at Asheville. www.diversityed.org/ 

deliberate-speed. 

specIal thaNks 

This expanded edition of Crossroads has been 

made possible by contributions to the North 

Carolina Humanities Council from the following 

donors: 

• SF James and Diane M. Abbott 

• Rob Amberg and Leslie Stilwell 

• DeWayne Barton 

• Kenneth Betsalel and Heidi Kelley 

• Andrea Clark 

• Harlan Joel Gradin 

• Johnnie Robinson Grant 

• Harry Harrison 

• Buck Hinman 

• Holly Jones 

• Millie Jones 

• Karen Loughmiller 

• Mountain Housing Opportunities 

• Dwight and Dolly Mullen 

• Betsy Murray 

• Priscilla Ndiaye 

• Marc Rudow and Deborah Miles 

• James Samsel and Kim McGuire 

• Will Scarbrough 

• Ed Sheary 

• Stephens-Lee Alumni Association, Inc. 

• Jonathan Tambellini 

• UNC Asheville Center for Diversity Education 

• UNC Asheville Intercultural Center 

• Alexandra J. Vrtunski 

• 

Cindy Visnich Weeks

This neighborhood was home to Stephens-Lee High 

School, the only African American public high school 

in western north Carolina. To those who lived there, 

East End was not a blighted or slum area, though at 

the same time poor housing conditions characterized 

many of the structures. Housing codes were not 

enforced and city officials failed to address damage 

from storms and sewage. 

Beginning on page eight, there are maps that 

visually locate the African American neighborhoods 

of Asheville discussed in this issue of Crossroads. 

They were rendered by Betsy Murray, an archivist 

at Pack Memorial Public Library, and include the 

East End, Southside, Stumptown and Hill Street, 

and Burton Street. 

Today, the dispossession of neighborhoods continues 

to resonate with most of those who were displaced. 

Many residents interviewed for the “Twilight” 

project discussed the painful severing of neighborhood 

ties and the disorientation that arises from 

not really knowing that a place is yours. 

However, it is not accurate to say that all residents, 

including African Americans, responded with acute 

pain. One project interviewee observed, “[i]t’s easy 

to get misty-eyed about…all the great collegiality and 

social networks…in these poor neighborhoods but a 

lot of people that lived [there]…were happy to get out 

of them…the point is it was mixed.” 

For some, urban renewal promised to rebuild cities 

and create positive changes in areas that looked as 

if they needed help. That there could be different 

understandings of the outcome of urban renewal 

illustrates how multi-dimensional this process really 

was. One of the key city administrators of urban 

renewal during the 1970s was David Jones, executive 

director of the Asheville Housing Authority (AHA). 

in 2008 he told Urban News that his job was “removing 

all substandard housing conditions to make a 

more livable environment for people who cannot do 

for themselves.” He continued, “People say the next 

thing they knew was that they looked up and they 

saw the bulldozers, but that’s not true. All of these 

urban renewal projects were pretty complicated.” 

in the same vein, Ken Michalove, Asheville’s city 

manager in the 1970s, recalls that “the urban renewal 

projects, the Opportunity Corporation, and the Model 

Cities Program helped make Asheville a livable community 

and helped make us...a top city in the United 

States to live in.” The issue is perhaps not what policies 

were implemented, but the ways in which they 

were implemented. 

Elijah Morgan at the entrance to the Savoy Hotel, 35 S. Market 

Street. Photo by Andrea Clark. Courtesy Andrea Clark Collection, 

Pack Memorial Public Library. 

Ed Sheary, director of the Buncombe County Public 

Library, places in sharp relief the power of Clark’s 

photographs to force personal reassessment of this 

period. He writes, “i am a fifty-four-year-old white 

male Asheville native, who well remembers the East 

End and watched it being demolished in the name 

of ‘urban renewal.’ i did not question the wisdom 

of tearing down and replacing substandard housing 

[until viewing]…Andrea Clark’s photographs….[Then] 

i saw the loss of neighborhood and all the human 

connections that entails.” 

right now, many residents from all over Asheville 

want to reclaim this history. There are efforts directed 

at renaming South Charlotte Street, creating a walking 

tour of the East End, and working to affect decisions 

about another road set to divide Burton Street. 

while the consequences of urban renewal may be 

difficult to dismantle, a renewed interest in this subject 

is sparking citizen engagement in determining 

the future. 

CROSSROADS • Summer/Fall 2010 • 3

About “Twilight of a Neighborhood: Asheville’s East End, 1970” 

Harlan Joel Gradin 

in 2008, Buncombe County Public Libraries and 

partners, the Center for Diversity Education, and the 

Stephens-Lee Alumni Association, received planning, 

mini-, and large grants from the north Carolina 

Humanities Council for the project “Twilight of a 

neighborhood: Asheville’s East End, 1970,” which 

was fueled by the passion and vision of photographer 

Andrea Clark and project director Karen Loughmiller. 

Project team members included photographer rob 

Amberg, Stephens-Lee High School alumna Pat 

griffin, Sarah M. Judson of the University of north 

Carolina Asheville, public historian and director of UnC 

Asheville’s Center for Diversity Education Deborah 

Miles, archivist Betsy Murray, community historian 

Henry robinson, and Buncombe County Public Library 

Director Ed Sheary. The project utilized Clark’s extraordinary 

photographs from 1970 to examine in depth 

the history and consequences of urban renewal. while 

the initial geographic focus was East End, the project 

grew beyond those parameters as participants 

shared stories about urban renewal disruptions across 

Asheville’s African American communities. A culminating 

weekend of related events was hosted by a large 

group of community partners including UnC Asheville, 

the YMi Cultural Center, the Urban News, A-B Technical 

Community College, among others. 

The East End had been a vibrant black community since 

the 1880s, although African American presence there 

dates back to the earliest times of slavery in western 

north Carolina. The neighborhood flourished through 

the first half of the twentieth century, perhaps even as 

the practices of urban renewal began in the city in the 

1950s. By 1978, urban renewal had razed much of this 

once strong family of neighbors. 

Fortunately, Andrea Clark had taken intimate portraits 

of local life in 1970, before the neighborhood disappeared. 

Few knew of this collection of photographs, 

until “Twilight of a neighborhood.” Project activities 

included an exhibit, expansion of recent research and 

gathering of oral histories, story-sharing sessions, 

book discussions, and public forums, as well as related 

programs including a class at UnC Asheville and the 

current examination of revitalization in Asheville. 

Today, there is serious discussion of urban revitalization 

in Asheville that likely will include many more 

voices than in the mid-1970s. One important result of 

“Twilight,” Loughmiller observes, is the ongoing partnership 

that emerged from participants’ “struggles… 

[in] learning to work together.” She continues, “Projects 

4 • NORtH CAROLiNA HuMANitiES COuNCiL 

Josie McCullough in the doorway of her home overlooking the busy 

intersection of Valley and Eagle Streets. Photo by Andrea Clark. 

Courtesy Andrea Clark Collection, Pack Memorial Public Library. 

that allow collaborative experiences to happen can 

empower people in a very real way and give momentum 

to the effort to reclaim control of our lives and our 

communities. in today’s world, what could be more 

important?” 

A core notion of “Twilight of a neighborhood” is “root 

shock,” a term developed by urban scholar and psychiatrist 

Mindy Fullilove, the keynote speaker at the project’s 

conclusion in February 2009. in a recent note to project 

participants, Fulillove quoted the European urban visionary 

Michel Cantal-Dupart, who wrote that “the cities of 

the future are cities that have a past and they must lean 

on that past to find the way to break barriers and to 

create the means of sustaining our children one hundred 

years from now.” The exciting, organic, and intentional 

group of citizens who now have practice voicing their 

history in the most public way are reclaiming their past 

to define their future; they plan to sustain their children 

one hundred years from now.

Andrea Clark, Photographer: The Family of Man/These Were My Roots 

Karen Loughmiller, West Asheville Branch Library 

AnDrEA CLArK’S East End photographs are 

stunning. They hold your attention. You look at one, 

walk away, come back to look again. And again. 

“what was she thinking about?” you wonder. in an 

interview with documentary photographer and friend 

rob Amberg, Clark mused, “i was really thinking 

about the family of man...about that photograph that 

transcends you.” Yes. You see it. 

But wonderful as the images are, Andrea Clark 

herself ensured that the questions they evoke in our 

minds were discussed publicly. Clark saw from the 

first that the East End photographs offered a way into 

the true story of her new community and its collision 

with urban renewal. More than three decades later, 

Clark envisioned that a full accounting of community 

history on the issue of urban renewal was essential 

to reckoning with the past which might lead to reconciliation 

and healing for people and the city. Tirelessly 

encouraging participation, Clark was the mighty 

heart of the “Twilight of a neighborhood” project. 

Although her father was from Asheville, Clark was 

born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After 

studying nursing for a short time, Clark went to photography 

school. She says, “i was young, footloose, 

and curious about the Civil rights Movement in the 

South. And i wanted to reconnect with my father and 

his family. in 1968 i took a Pullman porter to Asheville, 

and moved in with my family on valley Street.” 

For Clark, her new home “was like a little hamlet,” 

and although “valley Street was one of the poorer 

sections of town…i loved the spirit of the community. 

Folks were sweet and friendly.…i felt very comfortable 

here…and when you walked up Beaucatcher 

Mountain at night with the beautiful view of the city 

lights, you were standing in a black neighborhood.” 

“i took my camera everywhere with me,” she told 

Amberg. “i always received a warm reception — 

i think it shows in the faces in the photographs. 

i learned about my father’s family. i found a sanctuary 

here and kept coming back. i felt these were 

my roots.” 

The photographs of Andrea Clark 

bring what was and what was lost 

into our complex present. 

—Dr. Mindy Thompson Fullilove 

Andrea Clark. Photo by Betsy 

Murray. 

Houses in East End. Photo 

by Andrea Clark. Courtesy 

Andrea Clark Collection, 



The Patton Family 

AFriCAn 

AMEriCAnS helped 

create what we know 

today as home. The 

Courtesy uNC Asheville. labors of women and 

men helped build our 

land while the lives they led shaped the mountain 

culture. Other urban communities in South Carolina 

and elsewhere have hosted archaeology projects to 

document these footprints of early builders and have 

gained economically, with increased tourism, from 

the treasures they discovered. 

A likely archeological site is the heart of old East 

End. By 1811, enslaved people, owned by James 

Patton, worked at the Eagle Hotel and lived within a 

short walk behind the current Public works Building. 

Further investigation would reveal the nature of the 

relationship of the enslaved with other founders of 


Henry Robinson, Community Historian 

ASHEviLLE’S EAST 

EnD was the probable 

site of dwellings of 

James Patton’s family’s 

slaves prior to the 

Civil war. A Scots-irish 

immigrant who arrived 

in Asheville in 1811, 

EAGLE HOTEL LOCATION PATTON HOME WORKERS’ HOMES 

Patton and his descendants were instrumental in the 

development of tourism (hotels), roads, railroads, and 

other community initiatives. Prior to the Civil war, the 

Patton family ranked second in Buncombe County in 

number of slaves owned, after the woodfin family. 

And, it was in this area that newly-freed African 

Americans gathered during reconstruction to build 

an enduring community that would provide social, 

commercial, religious, and educational opportunities 

in a segregated society. 

The map shows the Patton family home and the 

location of the Eagle Hotel which they owned and 

staffed first with slaves and later with freed African 

Americans. Also indicated on the map is a group of 

homes on valley Street constructed to house black 

laborers and their families. These homes became the 

nucleus of the East End. 

(L) Map of East End Asheville, 1891. Courtesy North Carolina 

Collection, Pack Memorial Public Library. (Above) Henry 

Robinson. Photo by Johnnie Grant, Urban News. 

Restoring a Voice: The Case for Urban 

Archaeology in Asheville’s East End 

Dwight Mullen, Department of Political Science, UNC Asheville 

what became Asheville. Quality of life issues also 

need substantiation. what did people who were 

owned by other people eat? what did they do with 

the little time they had to themselves? where specifically 

did they live? Many questions can be addressed 

through expertly directed mapping and excavation of 

selected sites in the city. 

what lies beneath our feet in downtown Asheville 

is an important way to document the presence 

and contributions of African Americans in north 

Carolina’s mountains. The doorpost of a home or a 

cup held for drinking adds layers of connection and 

meaning to the past. 

we must not lose this opportunity to restore a voice 

about how our history was made and who made it. 

The knowledge we gain will inform how we live and 

will enrich the culture we make in the future.

Re-Storying Community: Lessons from African 

American Stories of Urban Renewal in Asheville 

Ken Betsalel, Department of Political Science, UNC Asheville, and Harry 

Harrison, Executive Director, YMI Cultural Center 

in THE SPring OF 2009 we co-taught a course 

on the impact of urban renewal on the lives of African 

Americans living in Asheville, north Carolina. One 

goal of the course was to restore a sense of community 

that had been lost due to urban renewal, while 

linking students to humanities-based perspectives 

on community-building. Each week students heard 

from community “story-holders” who experienced 

urban renewal first-hand. Community participants 

and students also took a tour of local urban renewal 

sites and studied photographs and maps that helped 

tell the story of urban renewal’s devastating impact 

on the cohesiveness of African American neighborhoods. 

Together we learned some valuable lessons. 

The first lesson was the importance of trust. without 

trust there is no community-building. The second lesson 

was the importance of “home place” in building 

a community. Holding our weekly sessions at the YMi 

Cultural Center, one of the oldest African American 

cultural centers in the country, gave a sense of security 

and validation, especially to community people 

as they shared with us. 

The third lesson is the importance of the story itself. 

while story telling sometimes opens up old wounds, 

(Sidney) Feldman’s Grocery, 91 Eagle Street. Photo by Andrea Clark. Courtesy Andrea 

Clark Collection, Pack Memorial Public Library. 

it also has the 

capacity to heal, 

as those who told 

their stories came 

to value their 

experience in new 

ways. More than Hattie M. Sinclair, 119 Valley Street, circa 

one participant 1968. Photo by Andrea Clark. Courtesy 

told how, while it Andrea Clark Collection, Pack Memorial 

was painful to tell Public Library. 

of the past, they 

were thankful that others might find their stories useful 

in creating a better community for everyone. 

Finally, we learned the value of listening. Story telling 

gave everyone a chance to slow down and listen! 

The separation inflicted by urban 

renewal still haunts many people. 

—Johnnie Robinson Grant, East End Resident 

How Does One Begin 

to Tell the Story? 

Wanda Henry Coleman, 

Former East End Resident 

and First Director of the YMI 

Cultural Center 

How do you begin to frame the impact 

of displacement of a raucous, “livingout-loud” 

neighborhood with all its color, 

tragedy, and comedy? 

When did we forfeit our safe havens, our 

ports in storm, and become, by default or 

absence, participants in the destruction 

of or radically negative altering of what 

should have been dear to us? We have to 

think about how and why this happened 

and account for ourselves. 


The following neighborhood maps show some of the hundreds of institutions that sustained community and were a 

source of pride and identity for over 100 years before urban renewal. Inspired by the communities their elders knew, 

neighborhood associations are now focusing on the three E’s — Economy, Environment, and Equity — as they lead 

the way to an economically and environmentally sustainable future for communities, including the safe and affordable 

housing that once had been promised and now must become a reality. 

EAST EnD 

17 

14 

10 

CHUrCHES 

1. Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church — 47 Eagle St. 

2. Sycamore Temple Church of god in Christ 

3. Tried Stone Baptist Church — 2 Sorrell St. 

4. St. Matthias Episcopal Church — 6 Dundee St. 

5. Cappadocia Holiness Church — 58 Max St. 

6. Calvary Presbyterian Church — 44 Circle St. 

7. nazareth First Baptist Church — 60 Hazzard St. 

8. St. James CME Church — 44 Hildebrand St. 

9. Hopkins Chapel AME Church — 321 College St. 

10. Berry Temple UMC — 334 College St. 

SCHOOLS 

11. Southeastern Business School — 93-99 valley St. 

12. Stephens-Lee High School/Catholic Hill High School 

— 31 gibbons St. 

13. Mountain St./Lucy Herring School — 36 Clemmons St. 

14. Allen High School — 331 College St. 

Doffers in Cherryville. 

Map by Betsy Murray, Archivist, Pack Memorial Public Library. Based on a 1950 map of Asheville. Locations are approximate. 


9 

13 

27 

8 

26 

25 

7 

6 

22 

12 

11 

5 

28 

1 

2 

15 

16 

18 

19 

4 

24 

23 

21 

20 

COMMUniTY OrgAniZATiOnS 

15. YMi Cultural Center/Soda Shop/Drugstore — 37 S. 

Market St. 

16. Market Street Branch Library — YMi Building 

17. Phyllis wheatley YwCA — 356-360 College St. 

BUSinESSES 

18. Savoy Hotel and Café — 33-35 S Market St. 

19. roland’s Jewelry — 29 S. Market St. 

20. Club Del Cardo — 38 S. Market St. 

21. ritz restaurant — 42 S. Market St. 

22. James Macon Barber Shop — 89 Eagle St. 

23. Carolina Tobacco Corp., warehouse (music) — 

Beaumont & valley Streets 

24. Self-Serve Laundromat — 138 valley St. 

25. Mr. Bud walker’s Store — Bottom of Mountain St. 

26. good value Store — Pine & Clemmons Streets 

27. Porter’s Store — 58 Pine St. 

28. Eagle Street Theater — 51 Eagle St. 

3

Stephens-Lee High School, c. 1968. Photo 

by Andrea Clark. Courtesy Andrea Clark 

Collection, Pack Memorial Public Library. 

Stephens-Lee High School & the Stephens- 

Lee Alumni Association 

Pat Griffin, Past President, Stephens-Lee Alumni Association 

TO BLACKS OF EAST EnD and throughout Buncombe County, 

Stephens-Lee High School, 1924–1964, symbolized Black education, 

achievement, independence, and culture. As the only high school to 

accommodate African American students in Buncombe County and 

surrounding counties, it was known for its classical music programs, 

drama productions, and beginning in the late 1930s, its marching 

band. Character, intelligence, fidelity, endurance, and fortitude were 

instilled in us daily as we learned and built lasting friendships within 

the hallowed walls of the “Castle on the Hill.” 

During the integration crisis of 1962–1972 the decision was made to 

close the school. After the demolition of the building, an idea was born 

for an alumni association which would work to retain the rich heritage 

that emerged from the school. A group of former students and teachers 

started the movement. The first alumni reunion was held in 1991; 

1,000 alumni attended! Today the association meets monthly and 

collaborates with other programs to emphasize to youth the ideals of 

dignity and self-help, the heart of the Stephens-Lee legacy. 

The East Is Rising! 

Sarah Williams, East End Neighborhood Association 

On JAnUArY 21, 2010, after five years of inactivity, residents of 

the East End came together for the good of the neighborhood. Those 

early meetings led to the East End Future Quest, which are visioning 

sessions that push community members to think about how they 

could foster self-improvement. Discussion topics included: 

• Our shared vision of the community in five to ten years 

• Challenges to make our vision a reality 

• Strategies to meet these challenges 

• An action plan 

Future goals include capturing the neighborhood’s history through 

discussions with elderly residents; working to improve neighborhood 

parks; working with the city on land use issues and future plans; 

developing a newsletter; and organizing volunteers. 

L I F E I N 

E A S T E N D , 

A S H E v I L L E , 

c . 1950–70 

You know, we were very close. It’s like, 

they talk about the village, it takes a 

village to raise a child. Well, that’s what 

we had. That was one of the things that 

was so joyful. 

~Bennie Lake 

East End was a community, a 

neighborhood, self-contained….It had 

hair-dressers. There were grocery 

stores, funeral parlors, cab stands. 

Eagle Street had doctors’ and lawyers’ 

offices, dentists’ offices, churches. You 

had theaters. We had swimming pools. 

You had barbershops and the Dew 

Drop Inn. Miss McQueen’s restaurant 

was across from YMI. Roland’s Jewelry 

and Chisholm’s sold everything. 

~Ralph Bowen 

There was a time when every black 

person who wanted to make a living 

could make a living. There were 

eateries all up and down Eagle Street, 

up on the mountain. There were clubs 

everywhere. 

~Talven “Sugarbody” Thompson 

During the 1950s, East End was a place 

where everybody knew everybody and 

every child was reared, mentored, 

disciplined, protected, and taught — not 

only by their parents but by neighbors 

as well. Children attended Sunday 

School and an afternoon training class, 

often accompanied by their parents. 

There was a partnership between the 

local church and the home. 

~Dr. Charles Moseley, Pastor, 

Nazareth First Baptist Church 

My mom told me, “Let me tell you 

something. If somebody comes to you, 

they need a place to stay, bring them 

in. They need food, feed them. If they 

need clothes, put clothes on their back. 

Don’t deny it.” 

~Jene Blake 


SOuTHSIDE 

28 

17 

CHUrCHES 

1. Bethel 7th Day Adventist Church — 51 Adams St. 

2. Beulah Chapel Holiness Church — 111 Black St. 

3. Church of god in Christ — 292 Southside Ave. 

4. new Bethel Baptist Church — 508 S. French 

Broad Ave. 

5. new Mount Olive Baptist Church — 148 Livingston St. 

6. St. John’s Church of god — 100 Southside Ave. 

7. St. Luke’s AME Zion Church — 40 Bartlett St. 

8. Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church — 

Corner of Livingston and Congress Streets 

9. worldwide Baptist Tabernacle Church — 

85 Choctaw St. 

SCHOOLS 

10. Asheland Ave. School (Closed 1949) — 

190 Asheland Ave. 

Phyllis wheatley YwCA moved here 

11. Livingston St. Elementary School — 133 Livingston St. 

12. School of St. Anthony of Padua — 56 walton St. 

13. Stewart’s School of Beauty Culture — 55 Bartlett St. 

14. South French Broad High School — 197 S. French 

Broad Ave. 


10 

24 

19 

22 

30 

7 

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15. YwCA — 195 S. French Broad Ave. 

16. Elks Club — 382 S. French Broad Ave. 

17. Asheville Colored Hospital — 185 Biltmore Ave. 

18. w.C. reid Community Center — 133 Livingston St. 

BUSinESSES 

19. The Southern news — 121 Southside Ave. 

20. James-Keys Hotel — 409 Southside Ave. 

21. Allen-Birchette Funeral Home — 350 Southside Ave. 

22. Conley’s Barber Shop — 187 Southside Ave. 

23. Fair grocery — 452 S. French Broad Ave. 

24. Sportsman Club — 105 Southside Ave. 

25. walton St. Park and Pool — End of Depot St. 

26. McMorris Amoco Service — 71 McDowell St. 

27. rabbit’s Tourist Court & restaurant — 

110 McDowell St. 

28. Jesse ray Funeral Home — 185 Biltmore Ave. 

29. Southland Drive-in — 127 McDowell St. 

30. Mae McCorkle’s Beauty Shop — 87 Blanton St. 


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Southside/East Riverside: Lost — In the Name of Progress 

Priscilla Ndiaye, Former Resident and Researcher of Southside Neighborhood 

BY THE TiME of urban renewal, Southside was the 

city’s premier black business district, surrounded by 

a large residential neighborhood. At over four hundred 

acres, the urban renewal project here was the 

largest in the southeastern United States. The scale 

of the devastation here was unmatched. 

“in the East riverside area,” said the [late] reverend 

wesley grant, “we have lost more than 1,100 homes, 

six beauty parlors, five barber shops, five filling stations, 

fourteen grocery stores, three laundromats, 

eight apartment houses, seven churches, three shoe 

shops, two cabinet shops, two auto body shops, 

one hotel, five funeral homes, one hospital, and 

three doctor’s offices.” 

The reverend grant’s 

church still stands on 

Choctaw Street. 

Multiple perspectives, 

lack of knowledge, much 

confusion, and discouraged 

and bitter individuals 

are all entwined 

as spiders in a web: 

any way you touch it, 

it trembles. 

The L-A-N-D 

Priscilla Ndiaye. Photo 

courtesy Story Point Media. 

Robert Hardy, Southside Neighborhood Association 

Oh — But the Land — But the L-A-n-D! The community 

breakdown: the loss of businesses, neighbors, 

continuity, sanguinity, customs, culture, social norms, 

and family displacement. 

Can one truthfully say there were no benefits? no! 

However, the benefits received when contrasted 

are a disproportionate negative to that which 

was gained! 

For the most part, the landowners were either 

elderly and/or sick; more times than not the gains 

and homes were obscured and/or lost due to the 

eroded economic base and failing subsequent 

infrastructure. Purchased at a give-away price, these 

properties were resold for sums unattainable by the 

descendants of the original owners. 

One perspective on this transformation sees families 

uprooted, relocated, and scattered; a community 

destroyed; a vibrant entrepreneurial business world 

shut down; and history fragmented, altered, and lost. 

A very different perspective sees economic benefits 

for the whole city and better living conditions for 

neighborhood residents. 

Asheville’s formal 

history was being 

made while Asheville’s 

African American history 

was lost — in the 

name of progress. in 

2008, for the first time 

an effort was made 

to collect this history 

through discussions 

and interviews 

[funded] by the YMi 

[Cultural Center] 

and the “Twilight 

of a neighborhood” 

project. 

Dewitt Street c. 1960. (L) Louvenia 

Booker. Center-Conaria Booker. 

Courtesy North Carolina Collection, 


Southside c. 1968. Photo by Andrea Clark. Courtesy Andrea Clark 


The resulting “fiasco” which we are now living is perpetual 

poverty for the descendants and gentrification 

of their land. 


STumpTOwn 

AnD HIll STrEET 

CHUrCHES 

1. Hill St. Baptist Church — Hill and Buttrick Streets 

2. welfare Baptist Church — 27 Madison St. 

3. Church of god — 13 gray St. 

4. Elder Perkins’ Church — Morrow St. 

5. varick Chapel AME Zion Church — 80 Hill St. 

6. Church of god in Christ — 89 gudger St. 

7. Church of god — 5 roosevelt St. 

SCHOOLS 

8. Hill Street School — 118 Hill St. 


9. Stumptown neighborhood Center — Madison St. 


BUSinESSES 

10. Morrow St. Corner Store — Morrow St. 

11. Mr. Howard’s Sweet Shop — 86 gay St. 

12. Chatham Brothers grocery — 7 gray St. 

13. Torrence Hospital — 95 Hill St. 

14. reed’s Coal Company — 8 Buttrick St. 

15. Mrs. Bernice williams Beauty Shop — 21 gudger St. 

16. Oliver groce grocery — 12 Barfield Ave. 

17. Mrs. Edith Adams Beauty Shop — 157 Hill St. 

18. Mrs. ruby Sherrill Beauty Shop — 153 Hill St. 

19. Midget ice Cream Parlor — 73 gay St. 


Shaded area indicates original boundaries of Stumptown neighborhood. 

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10 

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17 

18 

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11 

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3 

4 

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13 

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6 

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Hill Street Neighborhood — 

First to Fall 

LOCATED nEAr downtown Asheville, the Hill 

Street neighborhood was home to African Americans 

as early as 1900. in the 1950s, the community 

included working-class families who owned their 

homes, small businesses, a school, and several 

churches. Former resident Daryl wasson recalls: 

“You had this nice little community. These were all 

nice homes. They were cared for. There was nothing 

slovenly about it.” in the mid-1950s, the city started 

work on the Cross-Town Expressway, Asheville’s 

first superhighway. 

Squarely in its path, Hill Street homes began to fall. 

wasson says, “My mother and i watched them build 

the highway. in 1957 the highway department came 

Stumptown: A Dramatic Disruption 

Mrs. Clara Jeter, President, Stumptown 

Neighborhood Association and Ms. Pat McAfee, 

Community Historian. 

Around 1880, a thirty-acre tract in Asheville, near 

riverside Cemetery, was cleared for black residential 

use. Called Stumptown, the area attracted many 

black families who came to Asheville in search of 

work. They formed a dynamic social network, and 

created a good, respectable community of homes, 

families, neighbors, and friends. 

Stumptown residents found employment in riverside 

Cemetery, at nearby Battery Park Hotel, or with 

affluent whites on Montford Avenue. By the 1920s, 

Stumptown’s population exceeded two hundred 

families. Although there was much poverty, we had 

treasures money cannot buy — pride, dignity, and 

self-respect, and most of all, love. 

Urban renewal came as a total surprise to us. we 

heard bits and pieces about a new program that 

promised better living conditions. And then, remembers 

Mrs. Dorothy ware, one day “my parents got a 

letter warning them they had only a few months to 

find a new home.” Other residents got similar letters. 

where would we go? How would we get to work and 

church? if it’s urban renewal, why is eminent domain 

being exercised? what’s really going on here? 

(L) Building of Cross-town (E–W) Expressway, 1958. Courtesy 

Asheville Citizen-Times. (R) Daryl Wasson and friend, 6 Cross 

Street, Hill Street Neighborhood, c. 1958. Courtesy Daryl Wasson. 

and took out all the houses except for three on our 

street (Cross St.). They came through again in ’65, 

and they cleaned the place out completely in ’67.” 

Dr. Mary Frances Shuford in front of community center in 

Stumptown, 1967. Courtesy Asheville Citizen-Times. 

Stumptown residents experienced root shock repeatedly 

over the next two decades, as our homes were 

bulldozed to the ground, one by one, and the social 

order was broken. By the early 1970s little was left. 

Scattered, hurt, bitter, discouraged — we strove to 

build new hopes. in spite of the devastation, the 

strong values of our old community are visible in the 

successful lives of our young people. Stumptown 

lives on through them. 


15 

CHUrCHES 

1. new Hope Mt. Carmel Baptist Church — 

26 Mardell Circle 

2. Antioch Church of god in Christ — 176 Burton Ave. 

3. Moss Temple AME Zion Church — 2 Mardell Circle 

4. St. Paul’s Missionary Baptist Church — 

170 Fayetteville St. 

5. wilson’s Chapel Methodist Episcopal — 

103 Burton Ave. 

SCHOOLS 

6. Burton Street School — 134 Burton Ave. 


7. Burton Street Community Center — 3 Buffalo St., 

134 Burton Ave. 


12 

10 

13 

16 

2 

1 

11 

BurTOn STrEET 

BUSinESSES 

8. E. w. Pearson grocery and Blue note Club — 

3 Buffalo St. 

9. Dudley Coal and ice — Burton Ave. 

10. Herbert Friday Barber Shop — 212 Fayetteville St. 

11. T. Friday Barber Shop — 173 Fayetteville St. 

12. Jerolene rice Beauty Parlor — Edgar St. 

13. Emma Mickins Beauty Parlor — Edgar St. 

14. iola Byers Beauty Parlor — 3 ½ Buffalo St. 

15. Elam’s Farm — End of Buffalo St. 

16. Elam’s grocery — 57 Buffalo St. 


4 

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3 

7 

14 

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5 

9 

Historic Agricultural Fair Founded 

In Western North Carolina in the early 20th century, 

African Americans could not participate in county 

agricultural fairs. Burton Street community leader E.W. 

Pearson changed all that in 1914 when he organized the 

first Buncombe County and District Colored Agricultural 

Fair, held at Pearson’s Park in the Burton Street 

neighborhood. The fair attracted thousands yearly, 

black and white, and ran annually through 1947. 

E.W. Pearson collecting eggs at his home on Buffalo St. Courtesy 

North Carolina Collection, Pack Memorial Public Library.

Asheville’s Burton Street community lost streets and homes in 1965 when i-240 was built. the 

neighborhood has recently been threatened by an i-26 Connector Alternative known as Alternative 

3. this alternative would destroy a federal Weed and Seed neighborhood. A concerted effort by 

Asheville residents prompted the NCDOt to look for ways to reduce the impact of the connector 

on the neighborhood. Residents still await a final decision. 

Burton Street: Behind the Crack Curtain — Creating a Vision 

DeWayne Barton, Co-founder of Asheville Green Opportunity Corps 

DeWayne Barton, co-founder of Asheville 

Green Opportunity Corps, is one young 

leader in the Burton Street neighborhood 

trying to address recent problems, such 

as drugs and violence, that have emerged 

with community decline resulting from 

urban renewal. Seeing the history of 

urban renewal from a new generation’s 

point of view, he writes of transforming the present by listening to 

the stories of his elders. Barton is standing with Safi Mahaba, both 

are Burton Street residents. Photo by Dan Leroy. 

THE THrEATS: Eager nASCAr drivers looking 

for dope boys with the checkered flag. And race 

walkers, picturing their favorite drug medal around 

their neck — leaving behind small, clear plastic bags, 

empty lighters, and forty-ounce bottles. The ice 

cream truck of violence rolls through slowly, daily 

bell sounds of twenty-twos and forty-fives. i’ve seen 

this self-destructive pattern before in DC and virginia 

— drugs, bulldozers, developers — not knowing 

the i-26 expansion was behind Burton Street’s 

crack curtain. 

THE rESPOnSE: Listening to the warning cries 

of ancestors from elders who remember land-grabs 

of the past. we are helping to bring together a team 

and creating a vision of the future we want, sweating, 

A New Vision Held by Many 

Sasha vrtunski, ACIP, Project Manager, Asheville Downtown Master Plan 

THE TwiLigHT PrOJECT brought much-needed 

attention to painful memories and experiences that had 

been left out of our common history. it cannot be coincidence 

that now we have a lot of energy — multiple 

groups and individuals — working towards improving 

the East End neighborhood area. 

There now seems to be a new vision held by many of 

strengthening the bonds of neighborhood residents, 

stemming the tide of gentrification, and re-connecting 

East End with downtown through beneficial new development 

along the Charlotte/valley St. corridor. 

praying, and dreaming again, maintaining our consistency, 

saying good-bye to comfort zones. 

The stimulus begins with us. in our attempt to restore 

a community that supports sustainability, we will 

need to include everyone. Low wealth communities 

will sit at the table as equals with all other citizens of 

the city. By creating our own sustainable plan for the 

neighborhood, we’re protecting our community from 

the double-edged sword of development. we’re creating 

community programming for seniors and youth. 

we’re creating greenspace and backyard gardens. 

we envision a community business incubator and a 

community school, encouraging neighbors to join in. 

Historic Burton Street Agricultural 

Fair revived 

In another effort to restore community, Burton Street 

resident Mrs. Vivian Conley is leading an attempt to 

revive Mr. Pearson’s Agricultural Fair. “I saw our history 

and the old ways and the sense of community slipping 

away,” she says. Focusing on the fair’s emphasis on 

community and sustainable living, residents held a 

one-day mini-fair on September 25, 2009, building 

toward a centennial celebration in a few years. 

recovery comes through 

reclaiming history, 

restoring esteem, and 

redefining one’s participation 

in weaving 

the future. East End Rendering from Asheville Downtown 

residents are becoming Master Plan by Goody Clancy. Courtesy 

players in the creation City of Asheville, North Carolina. 

of the new Asheville 

Downtown Master Plan. They are making manifest 

the community’s dream of a renewed and vital neighborhood 

true to its historic promise. 


CROSSROADS • VOL. 14 • iSSuE 1 • 2010 

A PublicAtion of the north cArolinA humAnities council 

James Macon Barber Shop, 89 Eagle Street. James “Big Barber” 

Macon, Jr. Photo by Andrea Clark. Courtesy Andrea Clark 


The north Carolina Humanities Council serves as an advocate for lifelong 

learning and thoughtful dialogue about all facets of human life. It facilitates 

the exploration and celebration of the many voices and stories of north 

Carolina’s cultures and heritage. The north Carolina Humanities Council 

is a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the national Endowment for the 

Humanities. 

122 north Elm Street, Suite 601, greensboro, nC 27401 

COmmUNITY reSOUrCeS 

East End/Valley Street 

neighborhood Association 

renee white, President 

reneew1107@yahoo.com 

Burton Street 

Community Association 

Dewayne Barton, President 

(828) 275-5305 

Southside neighborhood 

Association 

Mr. robert Hardy 

(828) 251-0485 

Stumptown 

neighborhood Association 

Mrs. Clara Jeter, President 

(828) 258-9474 

Stephens-lee 

Alumni Association 

PO Box 105 

Asheville, nC 28802 

YmI Cultural Center 

39 S. Market Street 


(828) 252-4614 

www.ymicc.org 

The urban news 

(828) 253-5585 

www.theurbannews.com 

Eagle/market Streets 

Development Corporation 

70 S. Market Street 

(828) 281-1227 

Asheville GO 

(Green Opportunities) 

(828) 398-4158 

Center for Diversity Education 

114A Highsmith Student Union 

University Drive 


(828) 250-5024 

mountain Housing 

Opportunities 

64 Clingman Ave., Suite 101 


(828) 254-4030 

info@mountainhousing.org 

pack memorial library 

north Carolina Collection 

(828) 250-4740 

www.buncombecounty.org 

D. Hiden ramsey library 

Special Collections unC 

Asheville 

(828) 251-6645 

www.lib.unca.edu/library 

City of Asheville Office of 

Economic Development 

Downtown master plan 

Project Manager Sasha 

vrtunski 

(828) 232-4599 

Asheville Design Center 

8 College St. 


(828) 337-6927 

www.ashevilledesigncenter.org 

MANY STORIES, ONE PEOPLE 

www.nchumanities.org

Twilight of a Neighborhood - North Carolina Humanities Council

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